Traditionally Easter egg hunts are hidden “surprises” that originated as messages and inside jokes in TV shows, movies and software.Today, keeping up with audiences’ interests, brands are innovating egg hunts using beacons, social media, google view and mobile apps to engage potential customers.

Here are a few brands that have employed a creative twist to this age-old tradition.

Deploying Beacons for Easter Egg hunt

Image courtesy : thebighunt.org

Fabergé, a luxury jewellery brand, is staging the Big Egg Hunt in New York. The Big Egg Hunt that went live on the 1st of April has around 260 giant egg sculptures, each decorated by a celebrated artist, designer, architect, photographer or brand, placed throughout the five boroughs of New York City during the Easter period. Fashion brands that are contributing to this event include Ralph Lauren,Tommy Hilfiger, Diane von Furstenberg, Warby Parker and Naeem Khan. New Yorkers and visitors can participate in the egg hunt by downloading ‘The Big Egg Hunt’ app available on the iOS app store and Google Play.

So how do participants search for eggs? This is where the beacon technology comes into picture. Beacons enable shoppers to receive alerts when they’re in or near a store that has a special promotion for example, or, in the case of Paypal Beacon, to actually pay for items from their phones instead of cash register. Each egg in this hunt has a Beacon hardware installed inside it. Participants who have the app will receive notification via beacons when they are within a certain range of the eggs. They can “check-in” at the location of each egg they find. By checking in, one directly enters into a sweepstakes to win one of three Fabergé gemstone pendants. Clues to the location of eggs are put up on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Using Social Media for an innovative Easter campaign

Legendary ping pong haven Bounce, in collaboration with London dating site, DoingSomething is running an interesting Easter Egg hunt that offers Londoners a chance to win a year’s free ping pong membership at Bounce, if they find the golden egg in its “Easter Egg treasure hunt”.The event that started on the 11th of April culminates in what in what is being touted as the largest ever dating event, where 600 Londoners meet at a premium Ping Pong parlour – on the 20th of April, Easter Sunday.

Image courtesy : londontheinside.com

So what is the treasure hunt about? 50 Easter eggs (ping pong ball invites) are hidden around central London locations. Clues to the locations of these easter eggs are released through Bounce and Doing Something’s Twitter feeds. Here’s an example.

Everything about this campaign seems to be just right – not only does this help both Bounce and DoingSomething create brand awareness, it also lets them engage with potential customers in a fun-filled way.The campaign is already creating a lot of buzz on twitter.

When customers, visitors and subscribers discover Easter eggs, they turn to their social networks and blogs to brag about it. What better way to get organic social word-of-mouth than doing something cool and unexpected!

Using Google Street View Technology for the hunt

UK retail brand Tesco has kick-started its Easter campaign with an online Easter egg hunt which uses Google Street View technology.

The “Find the Eggs” campaign invites players to explore their streets to find thousands of virtual Easter eggs .To begin their search, the player has to type in their postcode. They are then directed to their chosen location using Google Street View where they navigate their way around in search for the eggs.

Once three eggs have been found the player wins a MaltEaster Chocolate Bunny, which can be claimed in store or online using a secure digital coupon.The supermarket has also hidden 40 golden eggs. The first player to find one of the golden eggs will win an HUDL (Tesco’s own) tablet. For the golden eggs, that are considered harder to find, clues are being posted from Tesco’s Twitter account @Tesco.

Using Augmented reality mobile app

Asda, a British supermarket chain has teamed up with augmented reality provider, Zappar for a virtual, in-store Easter Adventure Hunt. Asda shoppers will be treated to an in-store game where they are challenged to find the three Easter friends; Chick, Lamb and Pink Bunny. Shoppers will only need to download the free Zappar app onto a smartphone or tablet and then get zapping in Asda stores across the country.  When a participant zaps a sticker on the floor, the Easter Bunny leaps out of his hole from a floor sticker and tell kids and their parents all about this magical hunt.

Specially designed floor stickers have been hidden around almost 400 Asda stores across the UK for children and adults to discover. When zapped using the Zappar app, each one will transform to reveal a hidden world underneath the store, with one of the Easter Bunny’s friends hiding inside. Once all the friends have been found the successful adventurers can collect a free gift.

Easter egg campaigns are a great way to encourage deeper exploration of your store or site, and digestion of your value propositions. Have you found any Easter eggs on retail sites or apps that you would like to tell us about? Drop a line in the comments below.